As of 2016[update], there are 3 hydrogen cars publicly available in select markets: the Toyota Mirai, the Hyundai ix35 FCEV, and the Honda Clarity. Several other companies are working to develop hydrogen cars. As of 2014, 95% of hydrogen is made from natural gas. It can be produced using renewable sources, but that is an expensive process.[3] Integrated wind-to-hydrogen (power-to-gas) plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with hydrogen production using natural gas.[4] The drawbacks of hydrogen use are high carbon emissions intensity when produced from natural gas, capital cost burden, low energy content per unit volume, production and compression of hydrogen, and the large investment in infrastructure that would be required to fuel vehicles.[5][6][7]

A land-speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle of 286.476 miles per hour (461.038 km/h) was set by Ohio State University's Buckeye Bullet 2, which achieved a "flying-mile" speed of 280.007 miles per hour (450.628 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats in August 2008. A record of 207.297 miles per hour (333.612 km/h) was set by a prototype Ford Fusion Hydrogen 999 Fuel Cell Race Car at the Bonneville Salt Flats, in August 2007, using a large compressed oxygen tank to increase power.[9]

Toyota launched its first production fuel cell vehicle (FCV), the Mirai, in Japan at the end of 2014 and began sales in California, mainly the Los Angeles area, in 2015.[11] The car has a range of 312 mi (502 km) and takes about five minutes to refill its hydrogen tank. The initial sale price in Japan was about 7 million yen ($69,000).[12] Former European Parliament President Pat Cox estimated that Toyota would initially lose about $100,000 on each Mirai sold.[13] Many automobile companies have introduced demonstration models in limited numbers (see List of fuel cell vehicles and List of hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicles).[14][15] One disadvantage of hydrogen compared to other automobile fuels is its low density.[16][17][18]

In 2013 BMW leased hydrogen technology from Toyota, and a group formed by Ford Motor Company, Daimler AG, and Nissan announced a collaboration on hydrogen technology development.[19] By 2017, however, Daimler had abandoned hydrogen vehicle development,[20] and most of the automobile companies developing hydrogen cars had switched their focus to battery electric vehicles.[21]

In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated the world's first hydrogen fuel cell-powered tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao. The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd., Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram.[22] Tracks for the new vehicle have been built in seven Chinese cities. China plans to spend 200 billion yuan ($32 billion) through 2020 to increase tram tracks to more than 1,200 miles.[23]

ENV develops electric motorcycles powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, including the Crosscage and Biplane. Other manufacturers as Vectrix are working on hydrogen scooters.[24] Finally, hydrogen-fuel-cell-electric-hybrid scooters are being made such as the Suzuki Burgman fuel-cell scooter.[25] and the FHybrid.[26] The Burgman received "whole vehicle type" approval in the EU.[27] The Taiwanese company APFCT conducted a live street test with 80 fuel-cell scooters for Taiwan's Bureau of Energy.[28]

Companies such as Boeing, Lange Aviation, and the German Aerospace Center pursue hydrogen as fuel for manned and unmanned airplanes. In February 2008 Boeing tested a manned flight of a small aircraft powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Unmanned hydrogen planes have also been tested.[31] For large passenger airplanes, The Times reported that "Boeing said that hydrogen fuel cells were unlikely to power the engines of large passenger jet airplanes but could be used as backup or auxiliary power units onboard."[32]

In July 2010, Boeing unveiled its hydrogen-powered Phantom EyeUAV, powered by two Ford internal-combustion engines that have been converted to run on hydrogen.[33]

A HICE forklift or HICE lift truck is a hydrogen fueled, internal combustion engine-powered industrial forklift truck used for lifting and transporting materials. The first production HICE forklift truck based on the Linde X39 Diesel was presented at an exposition in Hannover on May 27, 2008. It used a 2.0 litre, 43 kW (58 hp) diesel internal combustion engine converted to use hydrogen as a fuel with the use of a compressor and direct injection.[34][35]

A fuel cell forklift (also called a fuel cell lift truck) is a fuel cell powered industrial forklift truck. In 2013 there were over 4,000 fuel cell forklifts used in material handling in the US.[36] The global market was estimated at 1 million fuel cell powered forklifts per year for 2014–2016.[37] Fleets are being operated by companies around the world.[38] Pike Research stated in 2011 that fuel-cell-powered forklifts will be the largest driver of hydrogen fuel demand by 2020.[39]

Most companies in Europe and the US do not use petroleum powered forklifts, as these vehicles work indoors where emissions must be controlled and instead use electric forklifts.[37][40] Fuel-cell-powered forklifts can provide benefits over battery powered forklifts as they can be refueled in 3 minutes. They can be used in refrigerated warehouses, as their performance is not degraded by lower temperatures. The fuel cell units are often designed as drop-in replacements.[41][42]

A disadvantage of LH2/LOX engines is the low density and low temperature of liquid hydrogen, which means bigger and insulated and thus heavier fuel tanks are needed. This increases the rocket's structural mass which reduces its delta-v significantly. Another disadvantage is the poor storability of LH2/LOX-powered rockets: Due to the constant hydrogen boil-off, the rocket must be fueled shortly before launch, which makes cryogenic engines unsuitable for ICBMs and other rocket applications with the need for short launch preparations.

Overall, the delta-v of a hydrogen stage is typically not much different from that of a dense fuelled stage, but the weight of a hydrogen stage is much less, which makes it particularly effective for upper stages, since they are carried by the lower stages. For first stages, dense fuelled rockets in studies may show a small advantage, due to the smaller vehicle size and lower air drag.[45]

LH2/LOX were also used in the Space Shuttle to run the fuel cells that power the electrical systems.[46] The byproduct of the fuel cell is water, which is used for drinking and other applications that require water in space.

In 2016 Nikola Motor Company introduced a hydrogen-powered Class 8 heavy truck powered by a 320 kWh EV battery. Nikola plans two versions of the hydrogen powered truck, long haul Nikola One and day cab Nikola Two.[47]United Parcel Service began testing of a hydrogen powered delivery vehicle in 2017.[48]US Hybrid, Toyota, and Kenworth have also announced plans to test Class 8 drayage hydrogen fuel cell trucks.[49]

Hydrogen internal combustion engine cars are different from hydrogen fuel cell cars. The hydrogen internal combustion car is a slightly modified version of the traditional gasoline internal combustion engine car. These hydrogen engines burn fuel in the same manner that gasoline engines do; the main difference is the exhaust product. Gasoline combustion results in carbon dioxide and water vapor, while the only exhaust product of hydrogen combustion is water vapor.

Hydrogen fuel cells are relatively expensive to produce, as their designs require rare substances such as platinum as a catalyst,[53] In 2014, Toyota said it would introduce its Toyota Mirai in Japan for less than $70,000 in 2015.[12][54] Former European Parliament President Pat Cox estimates that Toyota will initially lose about $100,000 on each Mirai sold.[13]

The problems in early fuel-cell designs at low temperatures concerning range and cold start capabilities have been addressed so that they "cannot be seen as show-stoppers anymore".[55] Users in 2014 said that their fuel cell vehicles perform flawlessly in temperatures below zero, even with the heaters blasting, without significantly reducing range.[56] Studies using neutron radiography on unassisted cold-start indicate ice formation in the cathode,[57] three stages in cold start[58] and Nafion ionic conductivity.[59] A parameter, defined as coulomb of charge, was also defined to measure cold start capability.[60]

Hydrogen does not come as a pre-existing source of energy like fossil fuels but is first produced and then stored as a carrier,[63] much like a battery. A suggested benefit of large-scale deployment of hydrogen vehicles is that it could lead to decreased emissions of greenhouse gasses and ozone precursors.[64] However, as of 2014, 95% of hydrogen is made from methane. It can be produced using renewable sources, but that is an expensive process.[3][65] Integrated wind-to-hydrogen (power to gas) plants, using electrolysis of water, are exploring technologies to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with traditional energy sources.[66]

According to Ford Motor Company, "when FCVs are run on hydrogen reformed from natural gas using this process, they do not provide significant environmental benefits on a well-to-wheels basis (due to GHG emissions from the natural gas reformation process)."[67] While methods of hydrogen production that do not use fossil fuel would be more sustainable,[68] currently renewable energy represents only a small percentage of energy generated, and power produced from renewable sources can be used in electric vehicles and for non-vehicle applications.[69]

The challenges facing the use of hydrogen in vehicles include production, storage, transport, and distribution. The well-to-wheel efficiency for hydrogen is less than 25%.[7][70][71][72] More recent analyses confirm this.[73][74]

The molecular hydrogen needed as an onboard fuel for hydrogen vehicles can be obtained through many thermochemical methods utilizing natural gas, coal (by a process known as coal gasification), liquefied petroleum gas, biomass (biomass gasification), by a process called thermolysis, or as a microbial waste product called biohydrogen or Biological hydrogen production. 95% of hydrogen is produced using natural gas,[75] and 85% of hydrogen produced is used to remove sulfur from gasoline. Hydrogen can also be produced from water by electrolysis at working efficiencies in the 50–60% range for the smaller electrolysers and around 65–70% for the larger plants.[76] Hydrogen can also be made by chemical reduction using chemical hydrides or aluminum.[77] Current technologies for manufacturing hydrogen use energy in various forms, totaling between 25 and 50 percent of the higher heating value of the hydrogen fuel, used to produce, compress or liquefy, and transmit the hydrogen by pipeline or truck.,[68]

Environmental consequences of the production of hydrogen from fossil energy resources include the emission of greenhouse gasses, a consequence that would also result from the on-board reforming of methanol into hydrogen.[70] Analyses comparing the environmental consequences of hydrogen production and use in fuel-cell vehicles to the refining of petroleum and combustion in conventional automobile engines do not agree on whether a net reduction of ozone and greenhouse gasses would result.[7][64] Hydrogen production using renewable energy resources would not create such emissions, but the scale of renewable energy production would need to be expanded to be used in producing hydrogen for a significant part of transportation needs.[78] As of 2016, 14.9 percent of U.S. electricity was produced from renewable sources.[79] In a few countries, renewable sources are being used more widely to produce energy and hydrogen. For example, Iceland is using geothermal power to produce hydrogen,[80] and Denmark is using wind.[81]

The DOE has studied hydrogen storage methods, focusing on on-board vehicular hydrogen storage systems that will allow for a driving range of 300+ miles.[84] Compressed hydrogen in hydrogen tanks at 350 bar (5,000 psi) and 700 bar (10,000 psi) is used for hydrogen tank systems in vehicles, based on type IV carbon-composite technology.[85]

According to GM, 70% of the U.S. population lives near a hydrogen-generating facility but has little access to hydrogen, despite its wide availability for commercial use.[86] The distribution of hydrogen fuel for vehicles throughout the U.S. would require new hydrogen stations that would cost, by some estimates approximately 20 billion dollars[87] and 4.6 billion in the EU.[88] Other estimates place the cost in the United States as high as half trillion dollars.[7][89]

In 2003, George W. Bush announced an initiative to promote hydrogen powered vehicles.[94] In 2009, President Obama and his Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu stripped the funding of fuel cell technology due to their belief that the technology was still decades away. Under heavy criticism, the funding was partially restored.[95][96] In 2014 the Obama administration announced they want to speed up production and development of hydrogen powered vehicles. The Department of Energy planned to spread a $7.2 million investment among the states of Georgia, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee to support projects that fuel vehicles and support power systems. The Center for Transportation and The Environment, Fed Ex Express, Air Products and Chemicals, and Sprint have invested in the development of fuel cells. Fuel cells could also be used in handling equipment such as forklifts as well as telecommunications infrastructure.[97]

Senator Byron L. Dorgan stated in 2013: “The Energy and Water Appropriations bill makes investments in our nation’s efforts to develop safe, homegrown energy sources that will reduce our reliance on foreign oil. And, because ongoing research and development is necessary to develop game-changing technologies, this bill also restores funding for Hydrogen energy research”. In June 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy gave 9 million dollars in grants to speed up technology development, 4.5 million for advanced fuel cell membranes, $3 million to 3M corporation to work on membranes with improved durability and performance, and 1.5 million to the Colorado School of Mines for work on simpler and more affordable fuel cell membranes.[98]

Critics claim the time frame for overcoming the technical and economic challenges to implementing wide-scale use of hydrogen cars is likely to last for at least several decades, and hydrogen vehicles may never become broadly available.[69][102] They claim that the focus on the use of the hydrogen car is a dangerous detour from more readily available solutions to reducing the use of fossil fuels in vehicles.[103] In May 2008, Wired News reported that "experts say it will be 40 years or more before hydrogen has any meaningful impact on gasoline consumption or global warming, and we can't afford to wait that long. In the meantime, fuel cells are diverting resources from more immediate solutions."[104]

Critiques of hydrogen vehicles are presented in the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car?. According to former U.S. Department of Energy official Joseph Romm, "A hydrogen car is one of the least efficient, most expensive ways to reduce greenhouse gases." Asked when hydrogen cars will be broadly available, Romm replied: "Not in our lifetime, and very possibly never."[105] The Los Angeles Times wrote, in 2009, "Hydrogen fuel-cell technology won't work in cars. ... Any way you look at it, hydrogen is a lousy way to move cars."[106]

The Economist magazine, in 2008, quoted Robert Zubrin, the author of Energy Victory, as saying: "Hydrogen is 'just about the worst possible vehicle fuel'".[107] The magazine noted the withdrawal of California from earlier goals: "In [2008] the California Air Resources Board, an agency of California's state government and a bellwether for state governments across America, changed its requirement for the number of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) to be built and sold in California between 2012 and 2014. The revised mandate allows manufacturers to comply with the rules by building more battery-electric cars instead of fuel-cell vehicles."[107] The magazine also noted that most hydrogen is produced through steam reformation, which creates at least as much emission of carbon per mile as some of today's gasoline cars. On the other hand, if the hydrogen could be produced using renewable energy, "it would surely be easier simply to use this energy to charge the batteries of all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles."[107]

A 2009 study at UC Davis, published in the Journal of Power Sources, similarly found that, over their lifetimes, hydrogen vehicles will emit more carbon than gasoline vehicles.[108] This agrees with a 2014 analysis.[7]The Washington Post asked in 2009, "[W]hy would you want to store energy in the form of hydrogen and then use that hydrogen to produce electricity for a motor, when electrical energy is already waiting to be sucked out of sockets all over America and stored in auto batteries"?[75]The Motley Fool stated in 2013 that "there are still cost-prohibitive obstacles [for hydrogen cars] relating to transportation, storage, and, most importantly, production."[109]

Volkswagen's Rudolf Krebs said in 2013 that "no matter how excellent you make the cars themselves, the laws of physics hinder their overall efficiency. The most efficient way to convert energy to mobility is electricity." He elaborated: "Hydrogen mobility only makes sense if you use green energy", but ... you need to convert it first into hydrogen "with low efficiencies" where "you lose about 40 percent of the initial energy". You then must compress the hydrogen and store it under high pressure in tanks, which uses more energy. "And then you have to convert the hydrogen back to electricity in a fuel cell with another efficiency loss". Krebs continued: "in the end, from your original 100 percent of electric energy, you end up with 30 to 40 percent."[110]The Business Insider commented:

Pure hydrogen can be industrially derived, but it takes energy. If that energy does not come from renewable sources, then fuel-cell cars are not as clean as they seem. ... Another challenge is the lack of infrastructure. Gas stations need to invest in the ability to refuel hydrogen tanks before FCEVs [fuel cell electric vehicles] become practical, and it's unlikely many will do that while there are so few customers on the road today. ... Compounding the lack of infrastructure is the high cost of the technology. Fuel cells are "still very, very expensive".[111]

In 2014, Joseph Romm devoted three articles to updating his critiques of hydrogen vehicles. He stated that fuel cell vehicles still have not overcome the following issues: high cost of the vehicles, high fueling cost, and a lack of fuel-delivery infrastructure. "It would take several miracles to overcome all of those problems simultaneously in the coming decades."[112] Moreover, he wrote, "FCVs aren't green" because of escaping methane during natural gas extraction and when hydrogen is produced, as 95% of it is, using the steam reforming process. He concluded that renewable energy cannot economically be used to make hydrogen for an FCV fleet "either now or in the future."[113]GreenTech Media's analyst reached similar conclusions in 2014.[114] In 2015, Clean Technica listed some of the disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles[115] as did Car Throttle.[116] Another Clean Technica writer concluded that "while hydrogen may have a part to play in the world of energy storage (especially seasonal storage), it looks like a dead end when it comes to mainstream vehicles."[117] A 2016 study in the November issue of the journal Energy by scientists at Stanford University and the Technical University of Munich concluded that, even assuming local hydrogen production, "investing in all-electric battery vehicles is a more economical choice for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, primarily due to their lower cost and significantly higher energy efficiency."[118]

A 2017 analysis published in Green Car Reports concluded that the best hydrogen-fuel-cell vehicles consume "more than three times more electricity per mile than an electric vehicle ... generate more greenhouse-gas emissions than other powertrain technologies ... [and have] very high fuel costs. ... Considering all the obstacles and requirements for new infrastructure (estimated to cost as much as $400 billion), fuel-cell vehicles seem likely to be a niche technology at best, with little impact on U.S. oil consumption.[92] The US Department of Energy agrees, for fuel produced by grid electricity via electrolysis, but not for most other pathways for generation.[119] Argonne National Laboratory developed a model of these emission pathways, to communicate the impact of potential fuel cell vehicle advantages and disadvantages.[120] In 2017, Michael Barnard, writing in Forbes, listed the continuing disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cell cars and concluded that "by about 2008, it was very clear that hydrogen was and would be inferior to battery technology as a storage of energy for vehicles. [B]y 2025 the last hold-outs should likely be retiring their fuel cell dreams."[121]

This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.Last update: No content is presented about series production PHEVs launched starting with the BYD F3DM and the Chevrolet Volt. Figures presented do not reflect current technology available.(November 2013)

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, or PHEVs, are hybrid vehicles that can be plugged into the electric grid and contain an electric motor and also an internal combustion engine. The PHEV concept augments standard hybrid electric vehicles with the ability to recharge their batteries from an external source, enabling increased use of the vehicle's electric motors while reducing their reliance on internal combustion engines. The infrastructure required to charge PHEVs is already in place,[122] and transmission of power from grid to car is about 93% efficient.[123] This, however, is not the only energy loss in transferring power from grid to wheels. AC/DC conversion must take place from the grids AC supply to the PHEV's DC. This is roughly 98% efficient.[124] The battery then must be charged. As of 2007, the Lithium iron phosphate battery was between 80-90% efficient in charging/discharging.[125] The battery needs to be cooled; the GM Volt's battery has 4 coolers and two radiators.[126] As of 2009, "the total well-to-wheels efficiency with which a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle might utilize renewable electricity is roughly 20% (although that number could rise to 25% or a little higher with the kind of multiple technology breakthroughs required to enable a hydrogen economy). The well-to-wheels efficiency of charging an onboard battery and then discharging it to run an electric motor in a PHEV or EV, however, is 80% (and could be higher in the future)—four times more efficient than current hydrogen fuel cell vehicle pathways."[72] A 2006 article in Scientific American argued that PHEVs, rather than hydrogen vehicles, would become standard in the automobile industry.[127][128] A December 2009 study at UC Davis found that, over their lifetimes, PHEVs will emit less carbon than current vehicles, while hydrogen cars will emit more carbon than gasoline vehicles.[108]

A 2008 Technology Review article stated, "Electric cars—and plug-in hybrid cars—have an enormous advantage over hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in utilizing low-carbon electricity. That is because of the inherent inefficiency of the entire hydrogen fueling process, from generating the hydrogen with that electricity to transporting this diffuse gas long distances, getting the hydrogen in the car, and then running it through a fuel cell—all for the purpose of converting the hydrogen back into electricity to drive the same exact electric motor you'll find in an electric car."[131] Thermodynamically, each additional step in the conversion process decreases the overall efficiency of the process.[132][133]

A 2013 comparison of hydrogen and battery electric vehicles agreed with the 25% figure from Ulf Bossel in 2006 and stated that the cost of an electric vehicle battery "is rapidly coming down, and the gap will widen further", while there is little "existing infrastructure to transport, store and deliver hydrogen to vehicles and would cost billions of dollars to put into place, everyone's household power sockets are "electric vehicle refueling" station and the "cost of electricity (depending on the source) is at least 75% cheaper than hydrogen."[134] In 2013 the National Academy of Sciences[135] and DOE stated that even under optimistic conditions by 2030 the price for the battery is not expected to go below $17,000 ($200–$250/kWh) on 300 miles of range.[136] In 2013 Matthew Mench, from the University of Tennessee stated: "If we are sitting around waiting for a battery breakthrough that will give us four times the range than we have now, we are going to be waiting for a long time".[137] Navigant Research, (formerly Pike research), on the other hand, forecasts that “lithium-ion costs, which are tipping the scales at about $500 per kilowatt hour now, could fall to $300 by 2015 and to $180 by 2020.”[138] In 2013 Takeshi Uchiyamada, a designer of the Toyota Prius stated: "Because of its shortcomings – driving range, cost and recharging time – the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars".[139]

In 2013, The New York Times stated that there are only 10 publicly accessible hydrogen-filling stations in the U.S., eight of which are in Southern California, and that BEVs' cost-per-mile expense in 2013 is one-third as much as hydrogen cars when comparing electricity from the grid and hydrogen at a filling station. The Times commented: "By the time Toyota sells its first fuel-cell sedan, there will be about half-million plug-in vehicles on the road in the United States – and tens of thousands of E.V. charging stations."[5] In 2013 John Swanton of the California Air Resources Board, who sees them as complementary technologies, stated that EVs have the jump on fuel-cell autos, which "are like electric vehicles were 10 years ago. EVs are for real consumers, no strings attached. With EVs you have a lot of infrastructure in place.[145]The Business Insider, in 2013 commented that if the energy to produce hydrogen "does not come from renewable sources, then fuel-cell cars are not as clean as they seem. ... Gas stations need to invest in the ability to refuel hydrogen tanks before FCEVs become practical, and it's unlikely many will do that while there are so few customers on the road today. ... Compounding the lack of infrastructure is the high cost of the technology. Fuel cells are "still very, very expensive", even compared to battery-powered EVs.[111]

^ abLanz, Walter (December 2001). "Hydrogen Properties"(PDF). U.S. Department of Energy. College of the Desert. Energy Density. Retrieved 2015-10-05. On this basis, hydrogen’s energy density is poor (since it has such low density) although its energy to weight ratio is the best of all fuels (because it is so light).

^ abZubrin, Robert (2007). Energy Victory: Winning the War on Terror by Breaking Free of Oil. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 121. ISBN978-1-59102-591-7. In order for hydrogen to be used as fuel in a car, it has to be stored in the car. As at the station, this could be done either in the form of super-cold liquid hydrogen or as highly compressed gas. In either case, we come up against serious problems caused by the low density of hydrogen.

^"Wind-to-Hydrogen Project". Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Research. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy. September 2009. Archived from the original on 26 August 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010.